GM So to compete in US SPICE Chessfest
September 14, 2010 10:47 am
MANILA, Sept. 13 — October will be another busy month for GM Wesley So.
After the 39th World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia scheduled later this month, So will take part in the 2010 SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence) Group A tournament set October 28-November 7 at the Texas Tech University in the United States.
It will be the second straight year that So will see action in the prestigious, category 16 tournament organized by chess ambassador Susan Polgar.
The multi-awarded Filipino campaigner with an ELO of 2668, will be seeded third in the six-player competition which also included GM Zoltan Almasi (ELO 2707) of Hungary, GM Alexander Onishuk (ELO 2688 ) of the United States, GM Georg Meier (ELO 2659) of Germany, GM Ray Robson (ELO 2539) of the United States and GM Eugene Perelshteyn (ELO 2528) of the United States.
“It’s a big honor for me to participate in the SPICE tournament for the second straight year,” said So, who finished fourth overall behind GMs Rauf Mamedov, Dmitry Andreikin and Yuriy Kuzobov last year.
“The SPICE Cup is one of the biggest international invitational tournaments in the United States regularly held in the beautiful Texas Universiy campuses,” said So, who is also scheduled to leave on September 9 for a week-long vacation in Toronto, Canada where his family is now based.
A win is worth three points, a draw one point and a loss zero in the tournament, which disallows a draw in less than 30 moves.
This will be So’s seventh major chess tournament this year.
Last February, So finished in a tie for seventh to 19th places and emerged as the top junior player in the Aeroflot Open chess championships in Moscow, Russia.
So also finished in a three-way tie for second to fourth places with GMs Abhijeet Gupta of India, Zhou Jianchao of China and Le Quang Liem of Vietnam in the 9th Asian Individual Chess Championships in Subic last April.
Last May, So topped the Phoenix Petroleum-sponsored Battle of GMs chess tournament for the third straight year, beating a star-studded cast in Tagaytay City.
So also wound up a fighting fifth in the Biel Young GMs tournament held in Biel, Switzerland last July, finishing the nine-round competition with 4.5 points on two wins, five draws and two losses.
So followed it up with a solid performance in the Rising Stars vs Experience chess team tournament in Wijk ann Zee, Netherlands where he finished with nine draws and only one loss to GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic of Serbia last month.
And early this month, the pride of Bacoor, Cavite finished seventh place in the Campomanes Memorial Cup held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, scoring six points on four wins, four draws and one loss.
In the SPICE Group B, the 10 participants are GM Davorin Kuljasevic of Croatia, GM Ben Finegold of the US, IM Gegerly Antal of Hungary, GM Andre Diamant of Brazil, GM Anatoly Bykhovsky of Israel, IM Irina Krush of the US, IM Dean Ippolito of the US, IM Danny Rensch of the US and Fm Darwin Yang of the US. (PNA) vcs/LOR
Source: http://balita.ph
So needs more training.